Monday, 6 August 2018

Confabulation - Edinburgh 1997

On my Patreon page today - a memoir piece from summer 1997 in Edinburgh, where I'm writing 'Fancy Man' and 'The Scarlet Empress' at the same time -

Here's a little excerpt, followed by the link -

On Sunday it was the ‘West and Wilde’ event, celebrating this lovely gay bookshop in the New Town. Drinking wine and smoking outside before it started spitting with rain. David Benson was there, sparky and lithe, jumping up on a bench to do a turn. He sneered and smarmed and wriggled about, unleashing his unnerving Kenneth Williams impression, reading chunks of the Orton diaries: the insalubrious entries from Marrakesh.

Patricia Duncker was there, too. She came dashing out, all beaming and guns ablaze, pashmina trailing, florid and profane and brilliant: bursting with bonhomie. She marched up to Jeremy while he was smoking and he thanked her for sending him her signed book while he was in the hospital. She told him not to eat cheese or drink champagne: they’re very bad for Crohn’s.

She told us, as far as she’s concerned, they can film her novel, ‘Hallucinating Foucault’ just however they like. The more vulgar the better, she says. Just so long as they make it. Then she told me she teaches Creative Writing via ‘narratology and poetics: I’ll send you our bibliography, dear!’